June 12, 2006

True Belief

There are two kinds of fanatics, or true believers if you will. There are more, variations being what they are, but the important thing lies only with the two.

There are true believers, people who believe in an ideology or set of logical premises, and will do everything that that person believes is necessary to further that ideology and/or end-goal.

A classical liberal that believes in human rights, regardless of what threats are issued towards them or their family, regardless of the social ostracism or economic difficulties, and regardless of the personal costs in greater or lesser amounts, is a true believer in the Rights of Humanity. A classical liberal is every bit as “fervent” and “fanatical” in his beliefs as the most fanatical and fervent Islamic Jihadist. I use fervent and fanatical without the negative connotations and the negative denotations. Belief is belief, no matter how you cut it. Kind of hard to cut and separate something that only exists in people’s metaphysical minds. But that is only a tertiary matter.

The other kind of [true] believer, the regular old fanatic that blows himself up for example, is the kind of person that is weak minded. He doesn’t know what he believes, so he just latches onto whatever is available. The strength of the connection of a true believer to his belief is like a molecular bond, extremely tough to crack without destroying the true believer. The strength of a suicide bomber fanatic, is about the strength of a baby clutching a lolly pop. It is a reflex, easily out-muscled, regardless of what the baby wants because the baby don’t know what it wants. It just grabs, at anything, available that is. Islamic Jihad gives them pride, gives them a way to pay for their families, gives them self-worth and self-esteem, and a Purpose. These are important instincts that a human is born with and grows to Need.

A true believer, of the molecular bond strength variety, knows exactly what he is doing, why he is doing it, and the best methods that will acquire his end results. He does not blow himself up, for that is a waste of his talent and does nothing to further the end goals of Jihad. If everyone in Islamic Jihad blew themselves up, the Jihad would be over, literally in pieces. This gives no right or truth to his beliefs or methods, as he himself realizes. Victory is the only forgiveness the true believer seeks. Robbespiere was willing and eager to sacrifice as many people as it took to save the Revolution, because Robbespiere believed in the Revolution. Not with some baby’s reflexive grabbing about, but with a physical connection in reality as strong as molecular bonds.

An example of a true believer is the arch-nemesis in Firefly, a highly recommended science fiction movie using Western motiffs and atmosphere.

Are fake liberals true believers? Not really, as we all know, they are raised with the guilt of privilege and are taught going into Ivy league that they are responsible for the plight of the poor because they are so much superior to the poor, that they OWE the poor their attention and compassion. This indoctrination produces a belief about as strong and idiot proof as 1 inch clear tape.

I believe in America. In the Constitution. In the ability of humanity to trascend the petty limits of idiots and murderers, if only on a temporary basis. To what lengths am I willing to go for that objective? I can say that the limits Bush has set on treating terroists with geneva convention protections, are nowhere near my own.

Do you remember Zawahiri saying to Z man, in an intercepted letter, that his indiscriminate killing of Sunnis were hurting the cause? Zawahiri is a true believer, he knows what should or should not be done to further his cause. Zawahiri knows the reality he is on and the reality he is attempting to make. Z-Man just wanted to spread a sheet of everlasting blood upon the denizens of humanity. Thus, in this manner, Z-Man’s belief in Jihad was only a means to an end. Z-Man believed in jihad because Jihad allowed him to grasp at blood and death in a manner that nothing else allowed him to. Was Z-Man a true believer? I don’t know, but I suspect that his belief in Jihad was stronger than a baby grasping at candy, but weaker than the AL-Qaeda masterminds that helped create the ideology of Islamic JIhad. It isn’t about courage, it is about belief.

True believers aren’t always trying to kill each other in heinous ways. A patriot of Germany fighting a patriot of America, can have respect for each other even if their duty demands that they fight and kill each other to further their “cause”. This is where Honor Amongst Enemies is relevant. The terroists have no honor. Because Japan and Germany had honor, we could make peace with them because their patriotism does not demand the destruction of every other patriot once we removed Hitler. The jihadists never obey the spirit of a peace plan, they always go back to Jihad, to exterminating every other rival belief system like Israel.

It is hard to gauge belief, because how people act is determined by wisdom, experience, and intelligence as much as the strength of their beliefs and culture. A guy, for example, going into Iraq to fight for “Jihad” and then is blown up by his own people while he is “driving to get recon data”, has little strength of belief in Jihad if this turns him away from the Jihad.

This has happened before, and the jihadist survived the car bomb his own people detonated. These “involuntary suicide bombers” are a great example of the strength of true belief. How hard is your belief really tested if all you have to do is to kill yourself and then it is over, except for the reward? That’s like someone believing he can quit smoking, does it for 5 days, and then says it is over. Hey, it ain’t over. That’s a weak showing of the strength of your beliefs.

True belief is a tricky subject. But I do know that the Socialists don't truely believe in socialism. Their mind is too weak and flawed for any true bond strength to develop.